


The Phoenix

by KB9VCN



Category: El Hazard: The Magnificent World
Genre: Angst, Gen, One Shot, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-10-31
Updated: 2002-10-31
Packaged: 2018-09-06 16:17:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8760181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KB9VCN/pseuds/KB9VCN
Summary: Written October 2002; angst; about 2100 words.
This takes place shortly after the end of the first OVA series.
This contains character death and extreme angst.  Reader discretion is advised.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written October 2002; angst; about 2100 words.
> 
> This takes place shortly after the end of the first OVA series.
> 
> This contains character death and extreme angst. Reader discretion is advised.

Afura Mann, great priestess of wind, flew through the skies over El-Hazard, following the sun.

The sun had fallen to the mountainous horizon by the time Afura returned to the temple of Mount Muldoon. The shadows around the temple were long, and Afura shivered lightly as she landed upon the grounds outside the rear entrance of the temple.

It was quiet.

Afura called out as she entered the temple. "Shayla? Kauru?"

They didn't answer.

But Afura wasn't worried. The priestesses' duties were as varied as their powers, and they would often go for days without seeing each other, even though they shared the temple as their home. And Afura had returned earlier than she had planned, so she would not have been expected, even if Shayla and Kauru were at home.

Still... Afura wanted to see Shayla. She wanted to see how her fellow priestess, and dear friend, was doing.

Shayla hadn't been the same... since Ifurita had returned.

There had been a major meltdown, at first. Everyone had expected it. All the frustration, and the suppressed longing, had brought Shayla to her knees, when she heard of Ifurita's return. She had gone out of her head, with rage and sorrow, for days.

Afura had to admit, to herself, that she might not have been able to handle Shayla's latest... tantrum, by herself. The new water priestess, Kauru Taurus, had surprised her. The once timid girl, apparently full of self-doubt and in constant need of reassurance herself, had grown into her role. Her quiet, calming presence had been a great help to both Shayla and Afura.

And, after a few days, the tears stopped, and Shayla had begun to pull herself together, and get on with her life.

But, still... Shayla wasn't the same.

In the few weeks since Ifurita's return, she hadn't had a drop of sake.

She had given up nearly all of the habits that Afura found so annoying. The few times Afura had gently needled her, she completely failed to respond, leaving Afura feeling strangely guilty for the verbal barbs that she used to throw out without a second thought.

And, strangest of all, Shayla had thrown herself into her duties. She had even spent time in Afura's private library, the past few days, reading about the history of her lamp of fire, and the many fire priestesses that had served before her.

_Hmm,_ Afura thought. _Maybe Shayla's in the library now._ She smiled to think of it. Shayla, in the library...

_Perhaps some good may have come of this,_ Afura thought. _I would never have wanted Shayla to be unhappy, but if she starts taking her duties more seriously... this may have all been for the best, after all._

Afura went to her private quarters for a quick shower and a change of clothes. Then she went to the temple kitchen, and brewed some tea, and prepared a tray of food for herself. And then, she went to her library. She still hadn't seen Shayla or Kauru, anywhere in the temple, as she entered the library.

The sunlight was failing by now, and the room was mostly dark. Afura set her tray down and lit a couple of lamps by the door. She made her way through the shelves, and came to a table by a window. She sat at the table, and took a closer look at the books laying on it.

The first book was an ancient text. It was the earliest volume dealing with the history of the great priestesses' lamps. She hadn't read this book for some time, and she had no reason to believe Kauru would have read it recently.

Afura smiled, as she let her curiousity get the better of her. After years of handling books, she knew that a rarely-opened book might "remember" the last pages read, if the reader had opened it wide enough to make an impression on the spine of the book. And her suspicions were confirmed, as she carefully held the book and let it fall open at the same time. It opened to a chapter on the lamp of fire. Shayla's lamp of fire.

Afura let her curiousity carry her further. _I wonder what Shayla was reading about,_ she thought as she scanned the page.

_The Phoenix Ceremony?_

_I think I remember reading about this,_ Afura thought. It was a ceremony unique to the lamp of fire. It hadn't been performed for centuries. The last ceremony was five hundred years ago.

_Yes,_ Afura thought. _I remember this now. It may be performed by a great priestess of fire, just after sunset._

_It may be performed by a great priestess of fire, after..._

_Oh no,_ Afura thought. _Oh no. Dear God. No._

Afura turned to the window, just as two things happened. The last rays of the setting sun were obscured by the mountains. And another light, a light both natural and unnatural, flared. It was so bright that it lit the library room like a rising sun.

Afura threw the book down, jumped away from the table, and flew from the library room, through the window. Her flight lasted mere seconds, but her mind raced. She had many thoughts in the few seconds it took her to find the source of the second light.

Her first thoughts were to curse herself. _Damn it,_ she thought. _Take me for a fool. Why didn't I see this coming? Why didn't I watch her more carefully? Why didn't I keep that book from her?_

Then... she prayed. _Please,_ she thought. _It might not be too late. Maybe I can stop this. Please, let it not be too late._

And then, as she found the source of the second light, her mouth fell open, and she gasped, despite herself, and her heart sank.

_Dear God,_ Afura thought. _The power. The energy. The... fire._

Shayla stood, at the top of a low ridge, surrounded by fire. In all the years Afura had known Shayla, in all the training they had taken together, in all the countless battles they had fought, Afura had never seen the lamp of fire produce this much power. How could any human withstand this much power? Even Shayla?

She couldn't. This much power would... consume her. It would burn her away to nothing. It would kill her.

She was letting it kill her. Shayla was killing herself.

Afura heard a gasp, and she turned.

Kauru came towards her, hands clasped, silently weeping. "Oh no," she said, softly. "Miss Afura... You weren't supposed to be here... Not yet... Not now—"

Afura's shock turned to rage. And she turned her rage on Kauru. "YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS!?" Afura screamed. "AND— YOU DIDN'T TRY TO STOP HER!?"

Kauru hung her head. "Please... Miss Afura..."

A whirlwind suddenly formed around Afura's body. But she screamed so loudly that she could still be heard over it. "GET OUT OF MY WAY!!"

The whirlwind shot forwards, towards the fire. But it was repelled by a massive wall of water. The wind and the water fell away, to reveal Afura and Kauru struggling desperately, hand to hand.

"DAMN IT!!" Afura screamed again. "GET OUT OF MY WAY!! SHE'S—"

Kauru reached back, swung her arm around, and slapped Afura.

This final shock was simply too much for Afura to take. She fell to her knees, not from the force of the blow, but from her shock.

"PRIESTESS AFURA MANN!!" Kauru shouted. "DO YOU DARE INTERFERE WITH THE PHOENIX CEREMONY!?"

Afura gibbered. "Thuh— this isn't a suh— ceremony! Thuh— this is MADNESS!! Shuh— she's KILLING herself!!"

Kauru did not yield. She shouted again, in anger. "This ceremony was prescribed by the old masters of El-Hazard! Do you presume to know all of the mysteries of the old masters? Do you claim complete knowledge of the lamp of fire, a lamp that is not your own!?

"This ceremony is the only way for her now! As a fire priestess, her passions burn more strongly than ours! And they may consume her, and turn her to despair, and anger, and hate, and darkness!

"The old masters knew that this might happen! This ceremony is prescribed for fire priestesses whose passions burn uncontrolled! Her energies will be absorbed by the lamp, and they will add to the strength of the priestesses that will follow her!

"The performance of this ceremony is HER decision, as the great priestess of fire! It is her sacred right, and obligation, and DUTY! And as the great priestess of water, I SHALL NOT LET YOU INTERFERE!! IF I MUST, I WILL SACRIFICE MY LIFE TO STOP YOU!!"

Afura still kneeled before Kauru, and gaped at her. "But..." Afura gasped. "But... she'll... DIE..."

The fight went out of Kauru, and she also fell to her knees. She embraced Afura, and began to weep again. "I know, Miss Afura," she whispered. "I know...

"But... it's too late now, anyway. If she completes the ceremony undisturbed, she will feel no pain. But if we try to stop her, she'd be burned horribly. She'd be in unimaginable agony. And she'd almost surely die from her injuries, in days, or hours...

"This is the only way now, Miss Afura. We have to let her go."

Afura let Kauru hold her, but she turned away, and looked to the fire. Shayla could still be seen, within the fire. But her body was no longer dark, against the fire. It was burning with a light that was almost as bright as the fire itself.

And Shayla smiled. It was not a smile like the Shayla of old— confident, but reckless, and dangerous. And it wasn't a smile like the few times Shayla had smiled of late— tired and sad.

It was a peaceful smile. Shayla had found peace, at last.

Shayla mouthed a few words. She was no longer capable of being heard, but her words were plain, as if they were spoken aloud.

_Don't worry,_ she said. _And don't be sad. It's alright._

_It's time for me to go, now. But don't be sad._

_Afura. My dear friend. Remember me. And be happy._

Shayla raised her arms out, to either side. The fire intensified and grew even more bright. And Shayla's body began to dissolve.

Her feet left the ground, and she rose into the air, slowly at first, but rapidly accelerating, and growing brighter still, as she became one with the fire around her.

She had become an angel of flames— a phoenix.

Afura watched the phoenix, raising her face to the sky as she kneeled, and holding Kauru as Kauru held her.

The phoenix rose high into the early night sky, among the stars.

Then, it flared one last time, with a light bright enough to illuminate all of Roshtaria. And then, the light was gone.

And Afura whispered, as she began to cry.

"Shayla..."

—

Miz stood behind the Fujisawas' house, looking up at the sky, watching the phoenix make its flight.

The light burned away, just as Fujisawa came out to stand beside her. "Miz? Did you see that? What do you suppose—"

Without a word, Miz spun around, clutched at Fujisawa, and began to sob into his shoulder.

Fujisawa looked at her in surprise, but then he held her tightly.

He looked back up at the sky and frowned, as he held her. But his questions could wait for later.

—

Makoto and Ifurita stared up at the sky, as the phoenix burned away.

Makoto finally looked down from the sky and breathed out heavily. "That COULDN'T have been a shooting star, right? It was flying straight up from the ground... Ifurita!?"

He turned to her, and gasped to see her weeping.

She turned to him. "Makoto... That fire rose from near Muldoon. And I recognized it. It was... Shayla-Shayla's lamp of fire..."

Makoto embraced her, and held her as she wept, and stared back up at the sky with an unreadable expression on his own face.

—

The great lamp of fire fell back to earth, not far from where Afura and Kauru kneeled, still holding each other, still crying.

They both heard it come to earth. It had fallen behind Kauru, and she didn't look up from Afura's shoulder.

But Afura looked up from Kauru's shoulder and stared at the lamp.

And Afura whispered again, as she continued to cry.

"Shayla..."


End file.
